EU cracks down on ‘rip-off’ data roaming charges: Kroes

European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes on Wednesday announced that the EU Commission, the executive body of the European Union, is going to take additional measures to crack down on excessive charges for data roaming by European telecom operators. Kroes also announced additional measures that will lead to more competition in the mobile telecoms market in the 27 member states of the European Union. bit.ly The move comes immediately after the entry into force of the last phase of the existing roaming regulation, which further lowered prices of voice and SMS roaming as of 1 July. Brussels intends to replace the current rules, which expire in June 2012, with lower price caps that will apply until 2016. By then, the Commission expects to have reached its objective of levelling domestic and cross-border mobile phone prices. New caps The new caps, already announced by EurActiv in May, will bring prices of international phone calls down to a maximum of €24 cents per minute in July 2014. The move will be made in two steps — in 2012 and 2013. €24 cents per minute is the price paid in most EU countries to make domestic mobile phone calls. Roaming prices are currently capped at €35 cents per minute under the existing EU regulation. Under the existing regulation, receiving phone calls abroad will cost a maximum of €10 cents per minute in July 2013, down from the current €11 cents. SMS prices will also go down to a maximum of €10 cents in July 2012, compared to the current …

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